MusicRadar

• Review

Effects

The 12 overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedals can push the amps in thrilling new directions. We enjoyed the Diode69's honking überdrive and oversaturated, 'about to explode' effects. There are 15 phaser/flanger/chorus effects, ranging from deliberately digital shimmers to wobbly analogue emulations – all can operate in mono or stereo.

The four delays include a tape variant, and the rack reverbs are based on Breverb technology, so their sound quality is assured, but, sadly, there's no spring reverb.

Elsewhere, there's a phat octaver, a decent pitchshifter, four wahs, three compressors, tremolo, EQ box, two vibratos, a volume pedal and even an acoustic guitar simulator.

Taking control

Controlling amp software via MIDI can be tricky, but TH1's implementation is bang on, we think. Presets are switched via MIDI program change and, what's more, patch changes happen instantly, with no delay or drop-out – this is most desirable for live use.

Instead of directly controlling amp and effect parameters via MIDI (or host automation), you set up a maximum of eight Smart Controls – similar to the 'macro' knobs found in some soft synths. You can set each Smart Control to be a switch, a knob or a tap-tempo button, and give it a name.

By dragging a module onto a Smart Control, you can assign a module parameter to it. In fact, you can pile on as many as you like, for doing things like turning up the drive on the amp, decreasing the speed of the phaser, and lengthening delay time, all via a single knob.

For each one, you can set the minimum and maximum value and curve – the latter means you can, say, alter the response when binding an expression pedal to a wah.

Smart Controls are saved along with your presets, and the factory versions demonstrate how flexible they are.

In v1.0, the Smart Controls can only be adjusted by MIDI CCs 20-27, but Overloud assures us that v1.1 will enable mapping to any number, and there'll be new Smart Control types, too.

Summary

TH1's performance is incredibly impressive. The CPU hit is astonishingly low, so using multiple instances simultaneously in a mix is totally viable, as is glitch-free live performance. TH1 didn't crash or misbehave once during our testing and even ran without a hitch on a dinky Samsung NC10 netbook!

As for criticisms, first, there's no undo function, which is exasperating if you delete a module by accident. And, as well as a lack of spring reverb, there are no dedicated bass modules (but good bass tones can still be had).

It's been some time coming, but we applaud Overloud for putting the extra effort in to make TH1 a serious contender for best all-round guitar amp package, and we urge guitarists to put this one on their shortlist.

Furthermore, we've had a sneak peek at the imminent v1.1 update, which is packed with new features, and there's a cutdown, affordable version called TH1 Triode about to hit the shelves, too.

Listen to TH1 in action:

Solo Y J:

Melodic Death